"The classical world's most coveted retreat," is how Marlboro Music was described in a recent New Yorker Magazine profile, and this retreat has helped to develop three generations of musical leaders. Soloists appearing at Carnegie Hall and major venues around the world, as well as principals and members of our leading symphony orchestras, founders and members of the foremost chamber ensembles and festivals and teachers at major conservatories throughout the country have all taken part. Each summer, prominent master artists and some of the world's most gifted young professionals gather for seven weeks on the hilltop campus of Southern Vermont's Marlboro College to explore music they have chosen. It offers the rare opportunity of unlimited rehearsal time, with no need to perform. Musicians inspire each other with fresh ideas and new discoveries in a wonderfully supportive family atmosphere.
Each summer ends in a most joyous and emotional way. How this happens is described in the following excerpt, taken from the 2012 Marlboro Music Festival Program Booklet. In it, Christopher Serkin, grandson of Rudolf Serkin, the festival's co-founder and guiding spirit for forty years, explains the place of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 80 at the festival and in his life.
The Choral Fantasy at Marlboro by Christopher Serkin
Beethoven's Choral Fantasy has been the last piece performed at Marlboro almost every summer since 1957. For everyone who has ever attended Marlboro, those opening chords have a unique emotional force. They immediately evoke a summer's worth of music making and signal the beginning of the dramatic end to another season.
The Choral Fantasy itself magically mirrors the Marlboro experience. For this one piece, all the musicians come together in a single orchestra, and yet-as played here-it has the feel of a chamber ensemble. The piano plays with the various winds in turn, and the strings play together in intimate episodes before the singers join in with the chorus, too, building to a final crescendo. The structure of the piece even follows the arc of the summer: a dramatic beginning, a period of deep exploration, and then a final, triumphal, joyous end.
I grew up at Marlboro, and have sung in that chorus since I was 9 years old, starting with the Soprano part standing next to my mother and migrating slowly down to bass. And every time, standing on stage surrounded by these incomparable musicians who have shared seven full weeks of music and life, I am still overcome with emotion by the final "und Kraft" that the chorus sings. With those last notes, most of the musicians are in tears and the orchestra is playing with an almost impossible intensity. In that piece, in that moment, it is perhaps the greatest orchestra in the world. My grandfather Rudolf Serkin, who played the piano part for so many summers, was once jokingly asked if Beethoven composed the piece for Marlboro. He answered, "No . . . but he approves."
Each summer ends in a most joyous and emotional way. How this happens is described in the following excerpt, taken from the 2012 Marlboro Music Festival Program Booklet. In it, Christopher Serkin, grandson of Rudolf Serkin, the festival's co-founder and guiding spirit for forty years, explains the place of Ludwig van Beethoven's Fantasia for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra, Op. 80 at the festival and in his life.
The Choral Fantasy at Marlboro by Christopher Serkin
Beethoven's Choral Fantasy has been the last piece performed at Marlboro almost every summer since 1957. For everyone who has ever attended Marlboro, those opening chords have a unique emotional force. They immediately evoke a summer's worth of music making and signal the beginning of the dramatic end to another season.
The Choral Fantasy itself magically mirrors the Marlboro experience. For this one piece, all the musicians come together in a single orchestra, and yet-as played here-it has the feel of a chamber ensemble. The piano plays with the various winds in turn, and the strings play together in intimate episodes before the singers join in with the chorus, too, building to a final crescendo. The structure of the piece even follows the arc of the summer: a dramatic beginning, a period of deep exploration, and then a final, triumphal, joyous end.
I grew up at Marlboro, and have sung in that chorus since I was 9 years old, starting with the Soprano part standing next to my mother and migrating slowly down to bass. And every time, standing on stage surrounded by these incomparable musicians who have shared seven full weeks of music and life, I am still overcome with emotion by the final "und Kraft" that the chorus sings. With those last notes, most of the musicians are in tears and the orchestra is playing with an almost impossible intensity. In that piece, in that moment, it is perhaps the greatest orchestra in the world. My grandfather Rudolf Serkin, who played the piano part for so many summers, was once jokingly asked if Beethoven composed the piece for Marlboro. He answered, "No . . . but he approves."
About the Author:
For more on Marlboro Music Festival, recordings of live performances, photos and more on Rudolf Serkin, visit http://www.marlboromusic.org.
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